Sharing some thoughts

  In  so many ways, Easter Day needs no words and yet here I am…!     And so I’ll begin with the simple fact that Easter is the reason we’re here. If the cross at Calvary had been the end of the story, then it would have been the end of the story. Jesus would have been long forgotten. But today, in spite of all the miserable stories we hear about the decline of Christianity, Jesus is proclaimed as the Messiah by 2.5 billion people…    And the invitation that Jesus offered in his earthly life to follow him remains the same today – come and follow, just as you are… That simple invitation changes lives…    In our readings today we’re thinking unsurprisingly about life, about abundant life! In the Old Testament reading from Isaiah (25:6-9) we heard of the mountain prepared by the Lord with all kinds of rich food and good wine. It’s the picture not of a trip to a good restaurant, but of God providing abundantly for his people, of God wanting the ...

  Holy Week – the questions…   Speaking to someone recently I said how much I valued Holy Week. I’ve thought about that a bit more and wondered what it is about it that is special, and my answer seems to be that it really does encompass so much of what my faith is about… There are other events and things that have made me reflect more closely on my faith and had a great impact on me, but Holy Week is up there with those things that are formative in my faith.  So, what is it about for me? Well, I think it’s something to do with the questions raised, and the answers given, or sometimes not. It’s about the statements made and the challenges offered and it’s about the promises made, verbally or implied, and the practical way in which God’s promises are revealed before us.  Palm Sunday is an exciting day in the church calendar. A day of palm waving and processions, a day of chaos in many churches as those processions move at different speeds in different direction...

  Today begins Holy Week, the time when we are asked to walk with Jesus to the cross before, next week, joining in with the celebrations of Easter Day.  Palm Sunday is always a special day in church. Sometimes churches do processions which can be a bit chaotic with different people walking at different speeds, sometimes even in different directions…  However we commemorate it, Palm Sunday is special, and I wonder perhaps if it doesn’t give us the chance to understand the mind of Jesus in this week a little bit more.  The gospel reading includes Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem. There were people spreading their cloaks on the roads and waving their branches as they greeted Jesus into the city.  The hopes of a passionate crowd were pinned on Jesus, but I’m not sure they even understood what those hopes might be. And that seems to have been true of the disciples too as the events of the week unfold, and it becomes clear that even they hadn’t quite grasped what...

  A little boy went along to a prayer meeting one day with his father. It was quite an intense prayer meeting where everyone prayed very loudly. Later the little boy remarked to his father, ‘If they lived nearer to God, they wouldn’t have to shout !’ Lent is a time when we traditionally seek to get closer to God, to live a little bit nearer to him, and today in our readings (Jeremiah 31:31-34, Hebrews 5:5-10 & John 12:20-33) we are reminded of some of the promises that we are given by him. We are reminded of the new covenant, the promise that Jesus has made to each one of us, a promise of new life offered in love through his death and resurrection. As we get closer to the commemoration of Palm Sunday, Holy Week, and ultimately to Easter Day, I think it’s worth just spending a short time reflecting on new life. And in the gospel reading I think we find some points on the subject. The first is the request to Philip from the Greeks, ‘Sir, we wish to see Jesus’. It is the most simp...